Democrats Dig In on Blocking Reauthorization of Warrantless Spy Powers, Citing Pulte’s Installation as Intelligence Chief

Democrats are digging in for a fight this week over warrantless powers to spy on foreign nationals, powers which are due to expire unless reauthorized by Congress. Democrats say they cannot consent to extending those powers as long as President Trump’s newly installed acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, is serving as the nation’s intelligence chief. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act grants national security officers the ability to tap into communications being conducted abroad. The program, though, has often accidentally intercepted Americans’ communications. One judge’s finds that the program has been used improperly hundreds of thousands of times. Despite perennial calls by libertarian-minded Republicans and progressive Democrats for new warrant requirements, the program has been reauthorized with broad bipartisan votes in the House and Senate several times since it was signed into law in 1978. When the deadline gets close, congressional leaders always find a way to get the bill to the president’s desk in time. Now, it appears that Democrats are not going to go along with the White House’s demand for a reauthorization if Mr. Pulte is installed to lead the DNI’s office. “The person who’s put national security at risk is Donald Trump by choosing someone totally unqualified at a moment … when our nation is at war in Iran and our adversaries are coming at us,” the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “This bill was on a path to, I think, getting passed,” Mr. Warner said. “But I think the responsibility and — candidly, most of my Republican colleagues agree — lies with the White House.”Due to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to end debate and some Republican members’ intransigence, Mr. Warner said GOP leadership will likely need about 15 Democrats to vote to end debate in order to get the bill passed. “I don’t see any path of convincing enough Democrats,” Mr. Warner said Sunday, though he offered the caveat that he would “see how the week plays out.”A Republican member of the committee, James Lankford, who is responsible for shuttling the bill through the Senate, told “Fox News Sunday” that he does not believe Mr. Pulte is qualified to serve as DNI for the “long term,” but he says he can serve in the role for a few weeks.Federal law requires any nominee to lead the office to have “extensive” national security expertise, though the statute makes no mention of qualifications for those serving in the role in an interim capacity. Mr. Pulte is the founder of a private equity firm and philanthropist whom the president tapped as chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Authority. “Just to be clear on this — to be able to say that you’re not gonna be able to vote on FISA (reauthorization) because you disagree with an interim, short-term person that’s stepping into lead one of the entities literally is sending a message to Al Qaeda and ISIS and other folks,” the Mr. Lankford said. Mr. Lankford argued that not reauthorizing the program is akin to telling terrorists, “We’re not watching you right now. You can do and say and plan whatever you want because we’re not gonna watch.” “I think that is not wise,” he said. On Friday morning, seven Senate Republicans voted against proceeding with a FISA reauthorization effort, much to the chagrin of the White House. The dissenting lawmakers are Senators John Kennedy, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, Eric Schmitt, Rick Scott, and Tommy Tuberville. Speaking to reporters in the dead of night Friday during the votes on the immigration enforcement spending, Senator Lisa Murkowski,e a Republican, said Mr. Pulte’s appointment unnecessarily complicates the FISA reauthorization, a pattern she described as typical of Mr. Trump. “I don’t think he thinks about the impact it has and the timing. Like, I just don’t think he thinks about it,” Ms. Murkowski told reporters. “It really has had impact.” “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said of the foreign intelligence surveillance vote. “That was driven by the announcement earlier this week — that Pulte was going to be the guy.”On Saturday, the chairmen of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees — Senators Tom Cotton and Chuck Grassley, respectively — wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that he should start preparing for a situation where FISA lapses. “We write with regret to ask that you plan for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection. In particular, we strongly urge you to convene a Principals Committee meeting as soon as possible,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by Punchbowl News. The senators urged Mr. Rubio to identify “lawful and constitutional intelligence-collection methods by which the United States could continue collecting intelligence,” including via executive order.

Democrats Dig In on Blocking Reauthorization of Warrantless Spy Powers, Citing Pulte’s Installation as Intelligence Chief

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